Although he has never received much recognition, Sonny Greenwich has achieved something rarer and more important, an unmistakably personal voice in jazz. Greenwich’s fame as a guitarist has mostly been confined to Canada, though his playing on Hank Mobley’s Third Season shows how well he could hold his own with masters of the prevailing hard-bop/modal style in the ’60s. Mobley’s record wasn’t released until the ’80s, unfortunately, by which time the discouraged Greenwich was on-and-off the scene.
Ed Bickert is another fine Canadian guitarist, whose excellent mainstream work has been heard on many sessions for the Concord label in recent years.
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